I can testify that eating extremely spicy food can make my eardrums itch. That could be due to flushing, though. It still wouldn't surprise me to find that intense pain in the tongue could have an echo in the ears, though. There are some odd neural interconnections around there--consider the photic sneeze reflex, for instance.

Alternatively, swelling in the tongue could be making Floaty hold his jaw in an odd position, causing pain in the joint, which can resemble an earache.